March 26, (THEWILL)- Chen Xuyuan, the former chief of China’s Football Association, has been handed a life sentence, after being found guilty of accepting over $10 million in bribes. The sentence follows a sweeping anti-corruption probe within Chinese football that has implicated over a dozen high-level officials since late 2022.

According to state media reports, the 67-year-old Chen brought “tremendous damage” to the sport through his corrupt actions while in positions of power from 2010 to 2023. He abused his roles, including heading the Chinese Football Association (CFA) from 2019, to assist others in exchange for money and valuables totalling over 81 million yuan ($11.22 million).

Chen’s case is one of the biggest corruption scandals to rock Chinese football in years, a sport that has long battled graft issues cited by fans as a factor in the underperformance of the national team. In 2012, two former CFA chiefs were each jailed for over 10 years on bribery charges.

The former football boss confessed to taking bribes in a televised documentary, describing an incident where officials arrived with backpacks of cash the night before he became CFA chairman in 2019. State media have reported several other recent convictions of football officials on corruption charges as part of the crackdown.

Authorities have vowed to root out systemic corruption in Chinese football. In an editorial, the Communist Party’s People’s Daily stated there is “no endpoint” in the anti-graft fight, calling it “imperative to trace back to the source and address the symptoms and root causes.”

Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.